Apple IPhone Software Engineer Interview

Interviewed Jan 2010 in Cupertino, CA (took 3 weeks)

An internal recruiter approached me about this role. She had an old resume and I gave her a refresh. She was pleasant to talk to. I then proceeded to have a phone screen with the group's SW manager. He informed me it was a position that focused on resolving performance issues, and they're in need of a generalist. I wasn't too confident of my chances, because I know they going to be hard-core about it. We talked about multi-threading issues, like how I'd know my program was in a deadlock situation.

I didn't think I was going to get a callback, but I lo and behold, I did! So I go in the following Monday to the Mothership. I was initially double-teamed by 2 engineers. It was pretty much a train-wreck after they were done with me. They asked me stuff that did not leverage my current knowledge...for example:

1) How would I implement 'ls'? My immediate answer: I don't know about File systems to answer that question adquately.

2) How do programs load and run? I might have touched upon that subject briefly in college. Another I-don't-know answer from me.

3) Is it possible to write a user-level pthreads library. I took a stab at this one, but they picked apart every answer I gave, like vultures. So I ended up crying uncle on that too.

The rest of the interview was much better, but I knew my goose was cooked/fried by then.

I did get the expected no-thank-you note from the recruiter. I did however, write back and relayed to her my awful experience interviewing; that the first two guys either ignored or didn't read my resume...and therefore were ill-suited to interview me.

She was really cool, and felt she took my opinion seriously. We have stayed in touch.

Although, I subsequently took another company's job offer. It was a no-brainer actually.